The invention relates to a screw cap lidded container for laboratory use. The invention relates particularly to a screw cap lidded container for use in biological, microbiological, medical, chemical or pharmaceutical laboratories.
The screw cap lidded container is, for example, a culture flask or another culture container for cultivating cells, tissue or microorganisms, or a laboratory bottle or another laboratory container for storing liquids and other media.
Culture containers are used in the laboratory for cultivating and harvesting cells, tissues or microorganisms. They have a container body in which there is a culture chamber that is accessible through a container opening. The containers have a screw cap for sealed closure of the container opening. The screw cap can be loosened somewhat for gassing the media in the culture chamber, e.g., using CO2 in the incubator. Here, it cannot be guaranteed that a sufficient, reproducible ventilation cross-section is attained. In addition, the screw cap can loosen completely due to vibrations of the incubator, and fall off.
Further, culture flasks are known that have a membrane filter in a screw cap in order to permit an exchange of gas between the interior of the flask and the surrounding area when the screw cap is screwed on. These culture flasks have the disadvantage that liquid can escape, particularly when the cell culture flask is tipped so that liquid is in contact with the membrane or the filter.
Cell culture flasks having a screw cap which engages into a defined ventilation setting in which the screw cap is not completely sealed, are also known. By further screwing on the screw cap beyond the ventilation setting, the screw cap can be brought into the sealed setting in which the cell culture flask is sealed gas-tight and liquid-tight. For locking in the ventilation setting, the cell culture flask has a plurality of lobes on the neck of the flask and corresponding axially aligned grooves on the inner periphery of the screw cap. When tightening the cap, the lobes, after overcoming light resistance, engage in the grooves before the screw cap closes the container opening. The interior of the flask is ventilated in this locked setting. With further rotation of the screw cap, again against light resistance, the lobes leave the grooves and the screw cap seals the cell culture flask. The ventilation of this culture flask is insufficient for some applications.
Given this background, an object of the invention is to create a screw cap lidded container with which sufficient ventilation is more reliably attained.
The screw cap lidded container according to the invention for laboratory use comprises                a container body defining a chamber,        a tubular section of the container body that is connected at the rear to the chamber and has a container opening in the front,        an external thread on the outer periphery of the tubular section,        a circumferential first sealing surface on the tubular section,        at least one first projection, which projects from the container body at a peripheral position of the tubular section,        a screw cap,        an internal thread on the inner periphery of the screw cap that can be screwed onto the external thread with thread play,        a circumferential second sealing surface on the screw cap, that by screwing the screw cap tightly onto the tubular section can be brought into sealing contact with the first sealing surface, and        at least one second projection, which projects from the screw cap at a peripheral position,        wherein the first projection on the front side, in a circular cylindrical cut surface about the central axis of the tubular section, has an increasing shoulder, and/or the second projection on the back side, in a circular cylindrical cut surface about the central axis of the screw cap, has an increasing shoulder, wherein when screwing the screw cap tightly onto the tubular section, the first and second projections come into contact and glide onto each other with the at least one increasing shoulder, whereby a forward directed force is exerted on the screw cap, through which, in a ventilation setting in which a ventilation gap is present between the first and second sealing surfaces, the internal thread is pressed with a thread flank against a thread flank of the external thread, the first and second projections are moved past each other during further screwing tightly and the first and second sealing surfaces attain a sealed setting in which they lie sealed against each other.        